If you’ve ever wanted to create a specific theme for your condo home—be it by color, country, period, or something else—don’t worry about people calling you out on that. There are different, contemporary ways to create design themes in your small space or condo without it looking like a movie set. Here’s how:

Parisian confection

IMAGE Dairy Darilag

Interior designer Van Acuña Solaña used two French details in the décor of this 146sqm unit: French-style furniture and a macaron-colored palette. Pistachio green and strawberry pink tempered with white and beige make up the color scheme, while contemporary versions of fauteuil (French armchairs) accent the space.

Grace Moslares’s client Benjie Chua fell in love with Venice during a trip, so the decorator created a design that was inspired by a Venetian palazzo. She used furniture with rich jewel tones (scaled down to condo size), crystal chandeliers, and the essential Venetian touch: a ceiling mural by artist Ricky Ambagan.

In another condo unit by Grace Moslares, the decorator turned to a specific color palette to reference the space to the design inspiration—in this case, Santorini, Greece. She used a palette of sky blue, aqua, cobalt blue, and stark white; colors reminiscent of the Mediterranean sea.

Leave it to minimalist modern design team Morfosis to create a condo unit inspired by those ubiquitous but trendy Japanese capsule hotels. The designers created “sleeping pods” in the bedrooms (screened off from each other for privacy), and used a lot of white and pale wood.

Grace got inspiration from Mondrian paintings with their simplistic, grid-like patterns and primary colors. She applied the primary colors of white, red, yellow, and touches of blue and black into color accents such as the paintings, pillows, and accessories.

Decorator and former RL creative director Gwyn Guanzon chose a modern-Chinese theme for this condo unit. He ditched the traditional Chinese color scheme of red and gold, and went for pale neutrals and pale wood instead.

IMAGE Dairy Darilag

Another modern-oriental touch in the home: Chinese-style hardware (reminiscent of those found on wedding cabinets) on the storage closets.